The Lost Marine

by DN Farrell

  Kell looked down at his sensors and on the left upper side of his screen, a green light was showing. He touched a control and data came up about it. The green light denoted the selection which autopilot had taken on his behalf, the planet Exocon, it was only a million or so kilometers from his present location, a ten hour flight, like it or not Kell was going to the planet Exocon!

  The hours drifted by ever so slowly. Kell's biological needs were met by his suit, he could eat from a food tube and drink water also, and even toilet movements could be countered, thanks to the advanced technology of his space marine suit. Also the pod itself, which was of an especially big design, so as to allow a marine in full battle armor to sit comfortably, it too had food and water, so wherever he was going, food and water would not be an issue.

  But Kell had two big issues in his mind though, first of all he knew nothing about this planet, as the escape pod had no information available, in its database, and Kell didn't even know that it existed until the escape pod selected to bring him there. The escape pods computer brain simply followed the principles of selecting the best option, out of a bunch of options presented to the computer by its sensory equipment, but that didn't mean it was a good option, as the computer would simply run an algorithm based on best practices, but for all kell knew this planet Exocon could be a rebel hive, in which case he would end up landing in a nest of vipers!

  The second major concern of Kell, was the space navy, surely they had to come back. Exugenes was a major producer of Xeron, a raw material used in Xeron Reactor Technology, the technology required to drive warp level space craft. With this planet occupied, the rebels could make a fortune in supplying either the Analusian Alliance or the Galbraggian Empire, with Xeron fuel cores, which in turn would help spread the rebel forces, so taking out Exugenes was the only sensible course of action, for the Galactic Federation.

  But the big question was when would they come, in a few days, in a few weeks? For sure the Trigerius was struggling to survive and would, if it could, fly out of the Exugenean system at speed, using the Federations superior warp drive technology to escape its attackers, but when would it be back?

  Kell could set up a distress signal, but when would they come back? Hell the rebels could even intercept the signal and come to get him instead, they would just love to torture a marine Colonel, if they could, although there was no way that Kell was going to be taken alive, that was a conclusion which he had already drawn, within his first few weeks of service in the Kolatian Quadrant!

  In the end Kell just sat there with his arms crossed and decided to take the opportunity for sleep. All he knew was that this had being a hell of a day and he hoped for a better tomorrow!

  Day Two

  Chapter Eight – Colonel Kells New Home

  Colonel Kell suddenly awoke with a start. He tossed and turned, not sure where he was, then realized that he was in an escape pod, but for how long had he slept? He checked the clock on the ships dashboard, which also had a countdown timer, which counted the time down in big blue letters, to reveal he had been asleep for ten hours straight!

  Kell couldn't of believed it, it had been a rough day for sure, but that's a long time to sleep without waking up, then he suddenly remembered that the escape pod, once set in its course, had neural tranquilizers which would initiate and put the occupant into a deep sleep, bordering upon coma, so to reduce air consumption and the need for food. On a ten hour escape trajectory, this would be no big deal but on a one or two hundred hour one, it could be a real life saver!

  Kell looked at his sensors and on the screen the planet of Exocon was looming large, but when he looked out of his window, it appeared to be a small dot way off in the distance. Over the next half an hour or so, it would get bigger and bigger until the big brown planet came looming up towards him. Kell checked his instruments and they suggested a planet with breathable air and water and a fairly high temperature of forty Celsius; it was summer in the northern hemisphere of Exocon and the ship had selected the town of Exejet to land in.

  Kell was feeling a little worried about what kind of welcome he would get there, but when he checked his sensors, they read no signs of humanoid life, and as for the town of Exejet, it appeared to be one of the biggest towns on the planet, but it still only took up an area of two kilometers on the map and once again no life signs, "Well that's strange." He thought to himself.

  Quickly the planet took over his view and the space ship started to decelerate rapidly. As it entered the atmosphere, flames started to flow all around the ship and it wobbled and bucked a bit, but then a minute or so later the escape pod was clear of the outer atmosphere and below him he saw an orange looking planet, orangy brown in colour, orangy brown sand, sand and more sand and an orangy brown sky.

  The ship continued to slow and then started a trajectory, which would bring it to a slow and safe landing on the outskirts of the town of Exejet. Kell grabbed his laser rifle just in case. Slowly the town appeared on the horizon and the pod dropped down to hundreds of feet, then slowed down to a crawl, before gently stopping in mid-air in a point on the edge of town. It then descended the last one hundred feet vertically and with a slight thump it hit the ground, bounced up and down once and that was it, Kell was on the planet Exocon.

  Kell hit the emergency opening button and the window popped open, within less than a second he was out and hiding behind the pod, which sat exposed on a small terrace. He looked around, but no activity at all.

  Before him stood a small town, with domed shaped buildings. Most buildings were small and looked like cute little houses, but some were connected and looked like they served some practical purpose. There was a big hall at the end of this group of streets and behind that a little bit a communications centre, which had a satellite and a tower in place. He checked his scanner, nothing, no life and no movement.

  He walked out into the middle of the terrace, where he had landed and with a sudden "shhh" sound, he disconnected his pressurised helmet and for the first time in over twenty four hours he breathed air, not the usual air con stuff that was in the helmet, and it felt good. He flicked a switch inside his suit, which would rejuvenate the air supplies. Then he just stood there, laser rifle at his side and he just watched the quiet little town.

  There were small buildings heading off into the distance, but if this was the biggest town in the planet, it could still only house several thousand people at best, then come to think of it were where the people?

  Kell scanned some more, nothing, then he looked around, the sun was beginning to set in the west and in a northerly direction he could see something. Smoke coming from over a hill! As quick as he could, he put his helmet back on and then started running at high speed over towards the hill. Then once there he took a quick jog up the hill. Then running to the top he suddenly saw it, another escape pod with smoke coming out of it!

  Kell did a quick one two, looking in every direction, just in case, there might have being something there, maybe even droids or wild animals, but nothing was there, so he ran down the hill and made it to the pod. The pod was smoking from when the ship was entering the atmosphere of the planet, naturally friction would cause fire, but since there was a nice big laser gash in the side of the ship, the pods hull had been compromised and everything inside the pod had gone on fire!

  Kell flicked an emergency opening button, in the right hand side of the pods windscreen, which was blacked out, and it suddenly flicked up. He was glad he had his helmet on, for it must have smelt awful. He could see a burnt marine sitting inside, with the word Samuels written across his helmet, the other marine who was trying to get of the ship and into an escape pod along with kell, but only he had not been so lucky, he must have come across a space fighter and it took a shot at him.

  Judging by the heat on the body of the pod, it had just arrived minutes after Kell, however the gash surely had taken place not long after they left the ship. But he had to check for sure, just in case, maybe there were space fighters around
here.

  With a click he opened the unpressurised helmet, for the suit had a great big burn hole in it where the laser hit, which would have depressurized the suit in the first place. Lifting of the helmet Kell had a start, the face of Samuels was intact and not burnt, thanks to the protection afforded him by the helmet, but it was all puffed up looking and bloated, as he had thought, from many hours of exposure to the near zero pressure and the extreme temperature variations of space.

  Samuels had been hit near the ship, the laser blast burning a hole in the ship and Samuels straight through his chest. Hopefully that killed him, if not he would have died of asphyxiation within a couple of minutes anyway!

  While Kell felt revolted by the sight of his colleagues swollen face, he cheered himself up by reminding himself that he probably died instantly, the damage to the body had taken place in the ten hour journey to Exocon. With that he reached inside into an emergency tool kit and pulled it out and then he pulled out Samuels body. He might be dead, but at least he would get a burial. Using a shovel, which came with the kit, kell in his biomechanically enhanced suit, quickly dug a two foot deep hole in the ground.

  He scanned Samuels ID, as proof of death, and then respectively he lay his body in the hole, poured the soil over it and left the helmet, with Samuels written on top of it, hanging out of the butt of his blaster rifle, which kell dug into the ground to act as a gravestone.

  Then Kell then looked off into the distance and he couldn't believe what he saw, a Landing craft buried in the sand! Once again he ran quickly out to check it out and found the intact bottom half of a Landing craft. Inside it where the burnt corpses of thirty two headless marines, sitting peacefully in their seats! He walked along the aisles and saw their headless bodies, made headless by a laser cannon, which had cut the ship in two horizontally. It must have being near this planet when it was hit, but then the ship was normal temperature, it had arrived here hours ago, but the fact that it was here indicated enemy space fighters nearby!

  All the bodies had been cremated on planet entry, due to the fire caused by the friction of the ship hitting the atmosphere at speed. He then walked up to the cabin of the ship, where the bottom half of the two pilots where still sitting in their chairs, the upper parts of their bodies obviously severed by the laser cannon. Because the pilots cabin was higher than the marines sitting area, the laser had taken off the top half of their bodies. Once again, they were burnt beyond recognition!

  But then Kell thought to himself better to die instantly from a laser cannon, than to be somersaulting in space, like some of the marines where right now. Following Newton's first law of motion, which stated that "an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction, unless acted upon by an unbalanced force". Kell thought to himself, while looking at the orangy brown sky and remembering his fellow marines up there. "Those poor bastards are somersaulting over and over again, and they will continue to do so until they either die or are picked up!"

  Dismounting from the half Landing craft, he looked back over at the burnt out pod and wondered at how many more wrecks had ended up on this planet and also perhaps there were other survivors somewhere, but then again his sensors told a different story. So much carnage, and largely by chance, Kell was the lone survivor on this planet!

  Kell just walked back sombrely, not feeling one bit optimistic about the situation. So much for a better tomorrow, but then again his real troubles were only just about to begin!

  Chapter Nine – Housemates

  Colonel Kell made his way back to the escape pod and the first thing he did, was switch on the homing beacon, under option B (secret beacon), being an irregular encrypted message, at first viewing it came across as a junk message, so hopefully the rebels would ignore it and think it was just cosmic background noise, but if the Federation came back they would be listening out for such messages.

  Kell then made his way down to the Town of Exejet and what he came across amazed him, row after row of empty buildings. All the buildings were habitable, most appeared to be fairly new, but all looked as if the occupants had just up and left quickly. Also another weird trait was the lack of doors and windows. This was a desert after all and the interior of the houses and small factories, which Kell came across, were filled knee high with sand. As for a business, there appeared to be some large buildings with farm equipment and there also appeared to be some empty storage silos, but all were empty apart from some machines in the farming buildings.

  Kell decided then to try his luck in the telecommunications centre, a tall building with an aerial tower and a satellite dish outside. Once again the doors and windows were missing, but the computer consoles were all intact, covered by heavy tarpaulin sheeting, to protect them from the sand, and all it took to switch on the solar powered computers, was for Kell to connect the mains switch. Flicking the switch into the on position, brought the computer consoles back to life.

  Kell started looking through various menu's on the computer and most of it seemed to relate to farming, including produce timings. From what he could make out, after half an hour of research, was that the farmers came from the planet Exugenes during the northern hemispheres winter, when the temperatures varied between fifteen to twenty Celsius, then they sowed their crops and harvested them. The planet had a forty earth hour day and a five hundred day long year, so within six earth months, about three months in Exocon time, they could finish all of their harvesting of a local cereal crop and some other crops, which Kell never heard of before and then they simply up and left.

  Getting up from his seat and looking out of the large space, where a window was supposed to be, Kell could see why they didn't hang about; Exocon was a dreary planet with this heavy laden dull orangy brown sky weighing down upon it, like a heavy duvet of darkness and now at forty two Celsius, it was one hot heavy duvet at that.

  It was near dark and Kell didn't want to stay outside, in case of wild animals. His sensors did not pick up on any humanoid readings, but it did pick up on a variety of non-human readings, which Kell felt could be animals of some kind. So better safe than sorry, tonight he would sleep within the pod and work out something safer tomorrow.

  Kell sat in the pod with the windscreen up and looked down at the brilliant yellow sun, which was setting beautifully in the west and then for safety sake he put his helmet back on and shut the pod door. There wasn't much to do inside the pod other than to sleep, which was not a problem with its inbuilt neural tranquilizers. Personally kell would have preferred to sleep somewhere else, but nowhere else had doors, at least the pod had a toughened Plexiglas windscreen, so it should be strong enough to fend of a wild animal, should one come along.

  Also he set up the perimeter alert system, which would wake him up if anyone or anything came within twenty five feet of the pod. Lying comfortably, he lied back and hit the neural tranquilizer switch and within seconds he was out cold.

  There was a sudden jolt and kell was awake. He was lying in the pod and outside was pitch dark and the perimeter alarm was bleeping. Kell sat up and grabbed hold of his laser rifle and then looking down the inner viewer screen, it presented a three hundred and sixty degree night vision picture of the four sides of the ship, and wrapping themselves around the legs of the craft, were a half a dozen five meter long snake like creatures. The adrenaline started pumping and Kell kept a watchful eye on the camera. Hopefully all would be well, as these large snake like creatures couldn't burrow their way inside and also the Plexiglas windscreen provided excellent frontal protection.

  But like most things in life it wasn't quite that easy. Two of the snake like creatures started moving around the fuselage of the pod, they were obviously aware of his presence inside. Then one of them climbed up onto the windscreen. Kell switched on the internal light to give himself a better view of the creature. The creature was big and black and looked a lot like a really big snake, but its head was missing! Instead there was a sucker, with large sharp white teeth attached within the suc
ker and no eyes. It must be picking up on his heat signature.

  Kell came closer to the glass, where the black snake like creature was now sucking at it. Kell exclaimed "What a lovely beast you are!" Then sitting back down, he sat there and looked at the creature, in quiet fascination, as it poured out a good amount of some saliva like substance from its four inch circular sucker mouth.

  For a minute or so everything appeared to be fine, then kell just about noticed that something was happening to the Plexiglass, it was melting! He looked again and came closer to the glass and clearly it was melting little by little. Kell hoped that it would go away, for jumping outside of the ship would probably spell death. Kell was no anthropologist, but then again you don't need to know what creature is after you, to know that it wants you dead!

  Surely it couldn't break through the four inch thick hardened Plexiglass screen, designed to deal with the harshness of outer space and even blaster fire resistant, but then again maybe not. The creature just kept on hanging in there, minutes passed by and the interior Plexiglass started to melt, it was obvious that within a few seconds that big snake worm thingy would be inside the pod, so no matter how much Kell hated the thought of going outside, it was the only thing which he could do.